Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has assured his Jammu & Kashmir counterpart Mehbooba Mufti of making all efforts to find the missing Kashmiri student, Suhail Aijaz. Mr. Aijaz had gone missing from AIIMS-Bhubaneswar last month.
“Our government is doing everything to trace Suhail. The State police and investigative agencies are on the job and all efforts are being made to trace the student,” Mr. Patnaik tweeted. He was responding to Ms. Mufti’s tweet on the safety of the missing student.
Ms. Mufti had tweeted “concerning reports coming in about a Kashmiri student, Suhail Aijaz of Kupwara, being kidnapped in Odisha, I request the authorities to investigate and take swift action.” She later acknowledged Mr. Patnaik’s quick response by ‘thanking’ him.
Ms. Mufti expressed her concern following appearance of a poster, written on a piece of plain paper, which noted that Suhail was kidnapped by the Maoists.
Security agencies in the State, however, do not attach any importance to the poster.
The poster, issued in the name of CPI(Maoist), Odisha State Committee, had demanded release of Odisha Maowadi Party chief Sabyasachi Panda within a week, failing which Mr. Aijaz would be killed. Mr. Panda, arrested in July 2014, is facing trial in a number of cases. However, the party he founded is no longer active.
Suhail, a second-year MBBS student, had left the AIIMS hostel on February 9 informing his classmates that he was going to attend a friend’s marriage in Chandigarh. His last cell phone location was detected at Howrah in West Bengal.
Ever since the incident of disappearance came to light, his father, Aijaz Ahmed, has been camping in Bhubaneswar.
Meanwhile, a team of Odisha police is planning to go to New Delhi as Mr. Ahmed has informed them that he had received anonymous calls about his son being spotted at a telephone booth there. Mr. Ahmed had advertised about his son’s disappearance and had given his telephone number.
